Today's Stichomancy for Federico Fellini

whirling round and round upon her toes, or rather all the
ballet-dancers in the world rolled into one and then multiplied a
million times in size. No, it was like a mushroom with two
stalks, one above and one below, or a huge top with a point on
which it spun, a swelling belly and another point above. But what
a top! It must have been two thousand feet high, if it was an
inch, and its circumference who could measure?

On it came, dancing, swaying and spinning at a rate
inconceivable, so that it looked like a gigantic wheel of fire.
Yet it was not fire that clothed it but rather some
phosphorescence, since from it came no heat. Yes, a

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad:

stars that rose in endless succession above the forests, while
the slight puffs of wind under the cloudless sky seemed to fan
their twinkle into a greater brightness. Dreamily he assured
himself over and over again that she would come, till the
certitude crept into his heart and filled him with a great peace.
Yes, when the next day broke, they would be together on the great
blue sea that was like life--away from the forests that were like
death. He murmured the name of Nina into the silent space with a
tender smile: this seemed to break the spell of stillness, and
far away by the creek a frog croaked loudly as if in answer. A
chorus of loud roars and plaintive calls rose from the mud along

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn:

helplessly; and he was beginning to despair of finding shelter for the
night, when he perceived, on the top of a hill lighted by the last rays of
the sun, one of those little hermitages, called anjitsu, which are built
for solitary priests. It seemed to be in ruinous condition; but he hastened
to it eagerly, and found that it was inhabited by an aged priest, from whom
he begged the favor of a night's lodging. This the old man harshly refused;
but he directed Muso to a certain hamlet, in the valley adjoining where
lodging and food could be obtained.

Muso found his way to the hamlet, which consisted of less than a dozen
farm-cottages; and he was kindly received at the dwelling of the headman.
Forty or fifty persons were assembled in the principal apartment, at the

The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf:

from eyes of unparalleled depth, and confront Mrs Ramsay's simple
certainty (and she was childlike now) that her dear Lily, her little
Brisk, was a fool. Then, she remembered, she had laid her head on Mrs
Ramsay's lap and laughed and laughed and laughed, laughed almost
hysterically at the thought of Mrs Ramsay presiding with immutable calm
over destinies which she completely failed to understand. There she sat,
simple, serious. She had recovered her sense of her now--this was the
glove's twisted finger. But into what sanctuary had one penetrated?
Lily Briscoe had looked up at last, and there was Mrs Ramsay, unwitting
entirely what had caused her laughter, still presiding, but now with every
trace of wilfulness abolished, and in its stead, something clear as the